Journal of Food Science & Technology

REVISED INSTRUCTION TO AUTHORS

(effective from 01 November 2015)
Pre-submission tips for faster handling of Manuscripts

Before you begin your submission, you have the following ready in order to make the
submission easy and faster

Please do not contact the editor-in-chief (EIC) or editor(s) for seeking opinion on suitability of
your manuscript (MS) for submission to the journal, as this is the decision best left to you (and
your co-authors). As JFST depends on the Editorial Manager (EM) electronic submission
system, the EIC or editors cannot pre-screen your MS outside the electronic system. All papers
have to be submitted through the EM system.
-

Cover letter as per the requirements of JFST

List of potential reviewers

Title page as a separate file

Blinded copy of the MS either complete with tables & figures

If submitting MS as single file then arrange in the following order - text (including
references), tables, list of figures and figures

File containing tables, if not included in the blinded copy

File containing figures, if not included in the blinded copy

Make sure that list of figures is appended at the beginning of the file containing figures
(or at the beginning point from where figures start in case of single file)

Additional electronic material in support of your MS, if any

Include only those who have contributed meaningfully and have made primary contributions
(like design of work, interpretation of results, writing of the paper etc) to the work. It is the
responsibility of the corresponding author to make sure that every author has read and approved
the paper before submission.

Make sure that you have used both line numbering (continuous) and page numbering in your
MS apart from using double spacing for the text.

Please take note of the following when making suggestions about the possible reviewers 1. The reviewers suggested should not be from your own institution.
2. They all cannot be from your own country (if suggesting from your own country, restrict it
to only one of the three or more reviewers suggested).
3. Make sure that expertise in your field (and not your collaboration with the suggested person)
must be the criteria in suggesting the name of the reviewer. Your suggestion, however is not
binding on the Editor(s) for use as first choice for the review of your paper.
Page | 1

Journal of Food Science & Technology

The presentation language must be consistent in usage (either British or American) and should
be, in the view of the Editor(s) concerned, adequate for submission to JFST. If the language
standard does not meet the Journals requirement, the MS will be rejected without review.
Please use the English language service offered by Springer, if needed.

Make sure that your MS clearly demonstrates that it fits within the scope of the journal. Novelty
of work and its ability to advance the knowledge in the field should be clearly highlighted in the
text of the MS as well as briefly mentioned in the cover letter.

Proper citations must be provided to prior work or mentioning/quoting of sentences, paragraphs

or tables/figures. Copy right permission must be obtained for use of tables/figures from other
works and the responsibility for the same rests solely with the corresponding author. Please note
that JFST screens each MS through an anti-plagiarism software and excessive reproduction of
previous works might result in rejection of MS.

The MS should clearly identify and define the procedures used in the work, unless it is a
standard protocol accepted globally. Mere mention and reference to previous work would make
the paper insufficient and dependent one in turn making the other researchers who would like to
use the method to depend on cross references.

If the MS is reporting data involving human/animal subjects or radioactive materials, make sure
that permission details or approved protocol numbers are clearly provided in the text of the MS.
If reporting studies related to bacterial cultures/cell lines, make sure to mention its public
accession numbers.

Manuscript Submission
Submission of a manuscript (MS) implies: that the work described has not been published before;
that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been
approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities tacitly or explicitly
at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally
responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Permissions
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published
elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and
online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their
papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Page | 2

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Cover Letter
Authors must enclose a cover letter specifically covering the following aspects
(a) the type of article being submitted (original research article / review / short communication)
(b) the total word count of the Manuscript (excluding tables and figure legends), number of
references and number of tables and / or figures in the MS should be clearly spelt out.
(c) highlights / novelty of the work being submitted (not more than 3 sentences; each sentence
should not exceed 125 characters including spaces)
(d) a statement on conflict of interest, if any or otherwise.
(e) should clearly mention about the originality of work, its non-submission / consideration in
other journal
(f) a statement to the effect that all authors have read and approved the MS; and, that all are
aware of its submission to JFST
(g) and, the corresponding author must undertake in the covering letter that he/she shall
review at least three manuscripts (in his/her own specialization) submitted to JFST.
If author(s) do not enclose a covering letter mentioning all the above, the MS would be returned by
the Editorial Office.
Types of Manuscripts
The journal accepts Original Research Papers, Reviews and Short Communications. Authors must
include continuous line numbering on all the manuscript pages; and, the pages should be
sequentially numbered. Following are the limits of word count, tables figures etc for different types
of articles Original Research Paper
Abstract word count (maximum)
Word count (including abstract & references; excluding tables & figure legends)
Total no. of figures+Tables
Total no. of references (maximum)

:
:
:
:

250
6500
06
36

Short Communication
Abstract word count (maximum)
Word count (including abstract & references; excluding tables & figure legends)
Total no. of figures+Tables
Total no. of references (maximum)

:
:
:
:

200
3250
03
30

Review
Abstract word count (maximum)
Word count (including abstract & references; excluding tables & figure legends)
Total no. of figures+Tables
Total no. of references (maximum)

:
:
:
:

250
9000
08
75
Page | 3

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Please note that in case of MS dealing with bacteriological cultures or strains, invariably the
culture deposition numbers as given by public culture collection (e.g., ATCC, MTCC, NCIM etc)
must be provided, without which such MS will not be considered for the review process.
Online Submission
Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the
editorial processing and reviewing times and shortens overall publication times. Please follow the
hyperlink Submit online on the right and upload all of your manuscript files following the
instructions given on the screen.

Additional remark Online Submission

Highlight the changes made in the revised MS for faster processing and provide a point-by-point
reply to the reviewer(s) comments as a separate file. Insert continuous line numbers and page
numbers throughout the text to facilitate reviewing process.

Text
Text Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text.

Use italics for emphasis.

Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.

Do not use field functions.

Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.

Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.

Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).

Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in LaTeX.

LaTeX macro package (zip, 182 kB)

Page | 4

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Article Structure
Title page
The title page should include:

The name(s) of the author(s)

A concise and informative title

The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)

The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author

Acknowledgements & any information that would reveal author(s) identity should be placed
here, as JFST follows a double blind review process, at the time of initial submission and
revision(s).

Research highlights
Research highlights to be provided on a separate page preceding the abstract Max 5 highlights
with each highlight not exceeding 100 characters including spaces
Abstract
Please provide an abstract of a maximum of 200 or 250 words (depending on the type of
manuscript). The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
Keywords
Please provide a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 keywords which can be used for indexing
purposes.
Body of the main text
The article should be divided into clearly defined sections as mentioned below and each section
heading should appear on its own in a separate line. Any subsection may be given a brief heading.
Please do not use more than three levels of displayed headings. If the MS uses abbreviations, they
should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
-

Introduction
Provide an adequate background to your work (do not resort to self citation, unless it is very
essential) outlining the issue that is being addressed and clearly state the objectives of your
work. Avoid a detailed literature survey and do not summarize previously published results.

Material and methods

This section should have sufficient details in order to allow the work to be reproduced by
any fellow researcher interested in the area. If standard methods / globally accepted
protocols are used, mere mention of the method along with details of any relevant
modifications made should be described. The section should also provide details of the raw
Page | 5

Journal of Food Science & Technology

material/starting material, the source, the components in it and changes that would have
happened due to any processing before or after use, if it is relevant to the study.
In case of theoretical papers / engineering calculations, the section should provide an
extended (not repeating what is already dealt in introduction) foundation for the current and
further work. In other words, the calculation section should represent its practicality in the
context of the MS from a theoretical basis.
-

Results and Discussion

Results should be very concise and clear. To avoid repetition of results of the work, a
combined section of results and discussion is often appropriate. Extensive citations and
discussion of published literature without importance to the results of the work should be
avoided. If author(s) choose to separate results and discussion sections, they are free to do
so. However, in such cases the results section should be very clear, comprehensive and
concise. Repetition of results in the discussion section should be avoided. Discussion should
clearly focus on the significance of the work and the improvements over the already
available knowledge.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short conclusions section, which
may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
Footnotes
Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a
reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference
citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should
also not contain any figures or tables.
Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by
superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data).
Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.
Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section
before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. In the
first instance, this section shall be in the title page, when uploading the blinded copy.

Page | 6

Journal of Food Science & Technology

-

References

Citation in text
Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. Some examples: Negotiation
research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990). This result was later contradicted by
Becker and Seligman (1996). This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et
al. 1995; Kelso and Smith 1998; Medvec et al. 1993).
Reference list
The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been
published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works
should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a
reference list.Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first
author of each work.
Journal article
Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, Bosquet L (2009)
Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent
children. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:731-738. doi: 10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8
Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of et al in long author
lists will also be accepted: Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al (1999) Future of health
insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325329
Article by DOI
Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000) Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J
Mol Med. doi:10.1007/s001090000086
Book
South J, Blass B (2001) The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London
Book chapter
Brown B, Aaron M (2001) The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern
genomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 230-257
Online document
Cartwright J (2007) Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Accessed 26 June 2007
Always use the standard abbreviation of a journals name according to the ISSN List of Title
Word Abbreviations, see www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php
For authors using EndNote, Springer provides an output style that supports the formatting of
in-text citations and reference list. EndNote style (zip, 3kB)
Page | 7

Journal of Food Science & Technology

-

Tables

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

Each table should be stand alone and has to provide all the details

Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.

For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the
table.

Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a
reference at the end of the table caption.

Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for
significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines

For the best quality final product, it is highly recommended that you submit all of your
artwork photographs, line drawings, etc. in an electronic format. Your art will then be
produced to the highest standards with the greatest accuracy to detail. The published work
will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.

Electronic Figure Submission

Supply all figures electronically.

Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.

For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format.
MS Office files are also acceptable.

Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line Art

Page | 8

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.

Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the
figures are legible at final size.

All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.

Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum
resolution of 1200 dpi.

Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone Art

Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.

Page | 9

Journal of Food Science & Technology

If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within
the figures themselves.

Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination Art

Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line
drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.

Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Color Art

Color art is free of charge for online publication.

If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main
information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another
when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a
xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are
still apparent.

If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.

Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure Lettering

To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).

Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 23
mm (812 pt).

Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type
on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.

Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.

Page | 10

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

Figure Numbering

All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.

Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).

If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the
consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, "A1, A2,
A3, etc." Figures in online appendices (Electronic Supplementary Material) should,
however, be numbered separately.

Figure Captions

Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts.
Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.

Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number,
also in bold type.

No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed

at the end of the caption.

Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles,
etc., as coordinate points in graphs.

Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a
reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure Placement and Size

When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.

For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and
not higher than 234 mm.

For books and book-sized journals, the figures should be 80 mm or 122 mm wide and
not higher than 198 mm.

Permissions
If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission
from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some
publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any
costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other
sources should be used.
Accessibility
Page | 11

Journal of Food Science & Technology

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures,
please make sure that

All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or
a text-to-Braille hardware)

Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind
users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)

Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

Electronic Supplementary Material

Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other
supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This
feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or
is more convenient in electronic form.
Submission

Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.

Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author
names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require
very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during
downloading.

Audio, Video, and Animations

Always use MPEG-1 (.mpg) format.

Text and Presentations

Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term
viability.

A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets should be converted to PDF if no interaction with the data is intended.

If the readers should be encouraged to make their own calculations, spreadsheets should be
submitted as .xls files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and
.tex can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Page | 12

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Numbering

If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the
material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.

Refer to the supplementary files as Online Resource, e.g., "... as shown in the animation
(Online Resource 3)", ... additional data are given in Online Resource 4.

Name the files consecutively, e.g. ESM_3.mpg, ESM_4.pdf.

Captions

For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of
the file.

Processing of supplementary files

Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any
conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility
In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your
supplementary files, please make sure that

The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material

Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that
users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

Does Springer provide English language support?

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication will be checked by our copyeditors for spelling
and formal style. This may not be sufficient if English is not your native language and
substantial editing would be required. In that case, you may want to have your manuscript
edited by a native speaker prior to submission. A clear and concise language will help editors
and reviewers concentrate on the scientific content of your paper and thus smooth the peer
review process.
The following editing service provides language editing for scientific articles in all areas
Springer publishes in.
Use of an editing service is neither a requirement nor a guarantee of acceptance for publication.
Please contact the editing service directly to make arrangements for editing and payment.

For Authors from China

Spri
Page | 13

Journal of Food Science & Technology

nger

Springer

For Authors from Japan

Edanz

For Authors from Korea

Edanz
. ,
Edanz Editing Global
.

Edanz Editing Global

After acceptance
Upon acceptance of your article you will receive a link to the special Author Query Application at
Springers web page where you can indicate whether you wish to order offprints, or printing of
figures in color. Once the Author Query Application has been completed, your article will be
processed and you will receive the proofs.
Copyright transfer
Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Society. This will ensure the
widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.
Offprints
Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.
Color illustrations
Online publication of color illustrations is free of charge. For color in the print version, authors
will be expected to make a contribution towards the extra costs.
Page | 14

Journal of Food Science & Technology

Proof reading
The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness
and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results,
corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.After
online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be
hyperlinked to the article.
Online First
The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first
publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited
by issue and page numbers.

Page | 15

http://www.springer.com/journal/13197